The freeze was part burnout and part CI. It was the Book From Hell. Five or six different beginnings. POV characters that worked in the outline that died on the book page. Words flowing like gravel. Had to ask for an extension, and barely made that. Wound up turning in a first draft to editor and agent that never should have seen the light of day. Had three months to rewrite it and did so, using very little of what went before. One month before the book is due, Due, DUE is *not* the time to finally get a handle on two of your POV characters.
I actually like the book. But writing it was like birthing a watermelon sideways.
I have been wondering whether the fact that the outline for Jani 5 is so solid is one reason why I can't write it. It's written to be the last book in the series, much is tied up/taken care of, and things have to end a certain way to complete the circle. For the first time, I may have an outline that I actually stick to, which means that I have pretty much told the story already. My outlines are long, 60-90 pages double-spaced, with snatches of dialogue, a spelling out of motivations. In the past, I have deviated from them enough that while I essentially kept to the tone, the actual story itself altered mightily. I don't think this one will alter much.
There are also things in this book that in a way presaged the crisis I mentioned before. I had a feeling something was going to happen, and it was almost as though I started working through it ahead of time. Then the crisis came, but it wasn't what I expected--same tone, different content. :-/ Now I need to work through it again in the writing, and I'm not really looking forward to it, even though as a plot progression, it is necessary. I feel the entire story arc would suffer without it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-20 09:53 pm (UTC)I actually like the book. But writing it was like birthing a watermelon sideways.
I have been wondering whether the fact that the outline for Jani 5 is so solid is one reason why I can't write it. It's written to be the last book in the series, much is tied up/taken care of, and things have to end a certain way to complete the circle. For the first time, I may have an outline that I actually stick to, which means that I have pretty much told the story already. My outlines are long, 60-90 pages double-spaced, with snatches of dialogue, a spelling out of motivations. In the past, I have deviated from them enough that while I essentially kept to the tone, the actual story itself altered mightily. I don't think this one will alter much.
There are also things in this book that in a way presaged the crisis I mentioned before. I had a feeling something was going to happen, and it was almost as though I started working through it ahead of time. Then the crisis came, but it wasn't what I expected--same tone, different content. :-/ Now I need to work through it again in the writing, and I'm not really looking forward to it, even though as a plot progression, it is necessary. I feel the entire story arc would suffer without it.